No culprits named in Shahzad investigation, media reports

About six months after it was launched, the commission investigating
the murder of journalist
Saleem Shahzad submitted its report to Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on
Tuesday. In the past, the government has not released results of such
investigations into the deaths of journalists, but there might be an exception
this time. There are early media leaks of its content: The Express Tribune's bylined story is "No
culprit named in Saleem Shahzad report," and Dawn's story ("Posted by a reporter," the byline says) is here.
Dawn echoes The Express Tribune's headline a bit further down in its
posting: "According to sources, the
commission has stopped short of fixing responsibility for the journalist`s
killing." But with no names named, the government might find it politically
viable to make the report public.

This latest highly touted exercise in justice appears to be
a recycle of the near-perfect
impunity which surrounds the killing of journalists in Pakistan. As we
noted in the June 3 posting "Justice
for Saleem Shahzad? We've seen this before . . .," even with high profile
investigations, the pattern has been that they have no effect on bringing the
killers of journalists to justice, whether or not the country's military and
security establishments are involved, as is widely held in the Shahzad
case. A shining example is the 2006
investigation into the death of freelance reporter Hayatullah Khan, who
upset the military by coming up with photographic evidence that the United
States had conducted a missile strike into Pakistani territory, despite Pakistan's
claims to the contrary. Those attacks are a commonplace event now, but in December
2005, when Khan's pictures showed the remnants of an American-made Hellfire
missile in the aftermath of a strike on a house in North Waziristan, it was a
global news event, and one that embarrassed, and angered, the military
government of Pervez Musharraf.

The only time there has been an investigation, arrests, a
prosecution, and sentencing of anyone accused of killing a journalist in
Pakistan was in the case of the 2002 beheading of the American Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. And
though that exercise in justice was far
from perfect, it shows what the government could be capable of when
pressured --- as it was by the Journal's
adamant insistence that the government pursue the case.

In December, we posted a blog, "Six
years later: Hayatullah Khan's family calls for justice," in response to a
request from Khan's brother Ahsan Ahmad Khan. He asked CPJ to put pressure on
the government and the Supreme Court of Pakistan to ensure that the special
investigation carried out in September 2006 into the journalist's death be
released. There has been no response from either the
government or the court to CPJ's call, or that of the many Pakistani
journalists who took up the case after the Khan family's appeal.

Prime Minister Gilani might be forgiven if he doesn't make
the seven-month-old murder of a journalist his top priority now. Islamabad is
obsessed with his increasingly tense showdown with the military, and coup
rumors are flying again -- Wednesday's BBC headline, "Pakistan army warns PM
Gilani over criticisms," is typical of the coverage, which has been going
on for months. We've seen this before, too.

Bob Dietz, coordinator of CPJ’s Asia Program, has reported across the continent for news outlets such as CNN and Asiaweek. He has led numerous CPJ missions, including ones to Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Sri Lanka. Follow him on Twitter @cpjasia and Facebook @ CPJ Asia Desk.

Comments

Mr Pervaiz Shaukat President PFUJ was the member of judicial commission heaed by judge of Sipreme court of Pakistan. Najam Sethi Hamid Mir Imtiaz Alam and others appeared before the commission but what Pervaiz Shaukat did. He only established his cordial relations with Information minister Firdaus Ashiq Awan and Secretary Information Taimoor Azmat awan and return getting talk shows on PTV and big cash reward and he did not make any effort to unveiling the culprits.